As you fill your plate and sit down
to eat a meal you may thinking that you are feeding yourself. Actually, your intestines feed YOU. Most of the
foods we eat would be deadly poisons if they got directly into our
bloodstream. Your small intestines act as very elaborate food
"dis-assembly" plant. Except for dietary fiber - nut husks, bran, celery strings
and such - your small intestines disassemble virtually everything we eat into very
tiny molecular components. Your intestine converts the crisp fat in your breakfast bacon into
smaller fatty acids. It turns the protein in your dinner lamb chop into smaller
amino acids. It changes the large carbohydrates in your mashed potatoes into
sugary glucose. Then, these much smaller and simpler nutrients can pass
through the intestinal wall into the blood stream where they circulate
throughout your body. These components are used to build
tissue, have energy to function, fight disease, etc.

To maximize absorption of nutrients into your bloodstream,

the walls of your
small intestine are normally covered with

microscopic hair-like projections
called villi and even

smaller microvilli. Villi contain special cells
which enable

absorption of nutrients into your body. Each square inch of

intestine contains about 10 billion microvilli. This increases the

surface area
for food absorption dramatically. In fact, if

your intestinal interior were
smooth, it would present only about 6 square feet of absorptive surface.
Instead, because of these villi, it presents about the same surface as a
football field! That's a Super Bowl for function!

Gluten
and how some bodies react

"Gluten" as it is commonly referred
to is the protein found in wheat, rye and barley.
Any reaction in which the body responds to a particular food
in a negative way is referred to as a "sensitivity".
Many food sensitivities manifest as allergies and some
as autoimmune responses. Consequently "Gluten Sensitivity" includes a wide range of symptoms
and conditions which encompass any reaction
to gluten.

At one end of the GSE
scale is an autoimmune
reaction (IGg/IgA). Diseases such as Celiac Disease
(CD) and Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH) are the "classic",
well-known gluten sensitivities and are considered to be the most
serious health condition due to the damage incurred in the small
intestine. Current estimates
place the number of individuals with CD/DH at 1 in 133. About 70% of these individuals remain undiagnosed! This is a
genetic condition, you must have the genes and be consuming gluten
to develop celiac disease.

Current research
indicates that there are many more individuals who have
a "gluten response" which is not detectable
through testing for CD or DH. These individuals have
found that a gluten-free diet improves their health
and sense of well-being. Recent genetic testing appears
to indicate that
these individuals share a "genetic
propensity" for this sensitivity with those individuals
who develop CD/DH. These individuals are currently being identified
as Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitive.

At the other end
of the scale is an "allergic reaction"
(IgE), an individual can suffer from an allergic reaction
to
gluten and/or wheat, rye or barley individually. Your
reaction will range from no "noticeable" symptoms
to "mildly" noticeable symptoms
all the way to the extreme end of
the scale causing anaphylic shock - an immediate respiratory reaction, as in a severe
peanut allergy.
Typically, this histamine reaction can be controlled
by
using antihistamines, though avoidance of the offending
food is preferred.

To make matters even more confusing,
estimates up to 50% of those individuals who test positive for CD
do not experience any of the "classic"
symptoms. Making diagnosis even more difficult until
more serious conditions and/or complications develop.